Lawyer: 'Weak' Sentence Spurs White-collar Crime

May 10, 1986|By Craig Crawford of The Sentinel Staff

Sentencing an Orlando builder and former bank president to probation after he pleaded guilty last December to writing $398,000 worth of bad checks encourages white-collar crime, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

Jay C. Barfield Jr., 42, of 1873 Wind Willow Road, was indicted by a federal grand jury last summer on a count of bank fraud from worthless checks he is accused of writing in 1984.

U.S. District Judge James Watson of New York, temporarily sitting in Orlando, sentenced Barfield on Wednesday to 5 years'probation and 2,000 hours of community service. The charge carried maximum penalties of 5 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

''This gives a blank check to people who are inclined to commit white- collar crime,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Calvacca. ''That's not mercy, that's weakness.''

''This was a very difficult sentence for the judge to make,'' responded Barfield's attorney, Harrison T. Slaughter. ''He took all aspects of the community into consideration. It was very fair.''

The judge also ordered Barfield to repay the money owed to Florida National Bank for the check-kiting scheme. The bank won a lawsuit against Barfield to collect the money.

''Simply paying back what you stole is not much punishment,'' Calvacca said.

But Barfield would not be able to repay the money if he were imprisoned, Slaughter said. Barfield's company has contracts and the money will be repaid, he said.

Check kiting is a process by which a person writes worthless checks from one account and deposits them to cover worthless checks written on another account before they clear.

The indictment against Barfield gave the following account of the charges: Barfield, president of Florida Homes Construction Co., used an old Florida National Bank checking account he maintained for another Orlando development company he operated, Lake Mary Jess Shores, and started writing checks on that account.

The account had only a ''minimal balance'' and had been dormant for years. Barfield deposited checks from the Florida Homes Construction account at First Fidelity Savings and Loan in Orlando into the other account. Several checks totaling $398,000 were then deposited at different branches of Florida National.

Florida National honored the checks but later discovered there were insufficient funds in the Florida Homes account at First Fidelity.

In the meantime, Barfield wrote checks on that money to pay bills to Florida Homes' creditors, and obtained $398,000 from Florida National.

Barfield was president of Orlando National Bank-West and American Bank of Orange County in the early and mid-1970s.

Barfield made news in 1974 when his wife was abducted by two men posing as photographers from The Orlando Sentinel. She escaped and the men were arrested, convicted and sentenced.